ST PETER'S MAMMA

It's been said that St Peter's mamma was a miser through and through. Never did she give to charity or spend a penny on her fellow man. One day while she was peeling leeks, a poor woman came by begging. "Will you give me a little something, good woman?"

"That's right, everybody comes to me begging ... Well, take this, and don't ask for any more!" And she she gave her one leaf of a leek.

When the Lord called her into the next life, he sent her to Hell.  The head of Heaven was St Peter, and as he sat on the doorstep, he heard a voice. "Peter! Just look at how I am roasting! Son, go to the Lord, talk to him, get me out of this misery!"

St Peter went to the Lord. "Lord," he said, "my mother is in Hell and begging to be let out."

"What! Your mother never did a good turn in her whole life! All she has to her credit is one little leek. Try this. Give her the leek leaf to catch hold to, and pull her up to Paradise by it."

An angel swooped down with the leek leaf. "Grab hold!" ordered the angel, and St Peter's mamma caught hold of the leaf. She was about to be pulled up out of Hell, when all the poor souls there with her and seeing her rise, latched on to her skirts. So the angel drew up not only her but all the others as well. Then that selfish woman screamed, "No! Not you all! Get off! Just me! You ought to have had a saint for a son, as I did!" She kicked and shook them from her, jerking about so much to get free, that the leek leaf broke in two and St Peter's mamma went plummeting to the bottom of Hell.

Tindall Family Motto

The Tindall family motto is “Nosce te ipsum” which is the Latin translation of the ancient Greek aphorism γνώθι σεαυτόν, meaning “Know thyself”. It was inscribed above the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

Plato employs the maxim 'Know Thyself' extensively by having the character of Socrates use it to motivate his dialogues.Plato makes it clear that Socrates is referring to a long-established wisdom. Benjamin Jowett's index to his translation of the Dialogues of Plato lists six dialogues which discuss or explore the saying of Delphi: 'know thyself.' These dialogues (and the Stephanus numbers indexing the pages where these discussions begin) are Charmides (164D), Protagoras (343B), Phaedrus (229E), Philebus (48C), Laws (II.923A), I Alcibiades (124A, 129A, 132C).

PRAY YOUR STRAIGHT AWAY - HETEROSEXUAL CONVERSION THERAPY

We need homophobic Christian volunteers to undergo "heterosexual conversion therapy" in order to make them homosexual. This would provide definitive scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed.

We know from science that "gay conversion therapy"  does not work and that you cannot "pray the gay away" yet it may be possible to change heterosexual homophobic Christians to homosexuality as that has not yet been attempted.

"Heterosexual Conversion Therapy" would have steps such as:

(1) Participate in art museums, opera, symphonies, etc.

(2) Avoid activities considered of interest to heterosexuals, such as sports activities.

(3) Avoid men unless it is for romantic contact.

(4) Increase time spent with homosexual men in order to learn to mimic homosexual male ways of walking, talking, and interacting with other homosexual men.

(5) Avoid church and join a gay community group

(6) Attend heterosexual reparative therapy group to discuss progress, or slips back into heterosexuality.

(7) Become more assertive with men through flirting and dating,

(8) Begin homosexual dating,

(9) Engage in homosexual intercourse.

(10) Enter into heterosexual marriage (when it becomes legal in your country).

RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE: Atheists / Theists / Agnostics / Etc - Facebook Group

I have created a new group for those interested. Join the group, add members and participate in the dialogue. https://www.facebook.com/groups/respectful.dialogue/

RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE is a safe haven for respectful dialogue between atheists, theists, agnostics etc.

RULES:
1. No personal insult of members or individuals.
2. No insult of deities / prophets / spokespeople
3. No flooding threads with off topic posts.
4. No posting threads irrelevant to the aim of the group.

Not adhering to the rules will result in a permanent ban.

"LIFE ...and how to survive it" - Robin Skinner & John Cleese

From Robin Skinner & John Cleese "LIFE ...and how to survive it" - (Methuen; London:1993)

John: ... In fact you could claim that most values in the West are derived from Christianity, and you don't find anything more inclusive than the words of Jesus Christ. ...

Robin: ... people interpret each myth according to their level of mental health....

John: So let me get this right: a less healthy person will take a healthy idea and turn it into something less healthy?

Robin: Absolutely! And vice versa too. ... Each person will bring their own family attitudes and feelings to their interpretation of myths about loyalty. So if hey come from a very unhealthy family, they'll feel that the group should all hold practically identical views, and that anyone who questions these views is a 'trouble-maker' who is being 'disloyal'; they'll feel hostility towards outside groups, and a disregard for the rights of such 'outsiders'; and they'll feel intense and demanding dependence on all the other members of the group. ...loyalty to unhealthy people is simply paranoia dressed up and re-labelled. p. 253 -255

John: So the healthy behaviour is to look at the thinking behind regulations; the less healthy behaviour is to take a literal and inflexible interpretation of the letter of the law. It sounds to me a general principle of mental health. p. 261

John: Well, I'll attempt a rough summing-up so far. We've been looking at the idea that each person interprets the world according to his or her level of mental health. And it seems to me that the unhealthier we are, the more literal minded we are in the interpretations of the letter of the law, as it were; and the healthier we are, the more influenced we are by the broader idea that lies behind the formulation of the myth that we are interpreting. p. 266

John: ... we poor teenagers were hearing sermons every Sunday so breathtakingly half-witted that the only valid response was reading, sleeping, or invading the pulpit.... Any God, I felt, who would seriously approve of what was going on in that church would be out of his infinite mind. p. 268

John: So a religious idea will be interpreted by a person in a way that fits in best with their existing psychology?

Robin: Yes, and it can therefore support them in functioning at the best level they're capable of, given their limitations. ... Well, take people functioning at the least healthy level first. They'll understand religion as a collection of rules, of rewards and punishments, of threats and promises, all enforced by a powerful and frightening God.

John: The extreme black-and-white thinking found in young children?

Robin: That's exactly what it is. The thinking of such people has got stuck at that level, and though it's normal in a very young child, it's obviously unhealthy in an adult. ...

John: And how is God experienced?

Robin: He's seen as a terrifying, domineering, bad-tempered dictator, who wants everyone to spend heir time admiring him and telling him how marvellous he is. ... So naturally people holding this view feel they have to do lots of things to keep Him sweet, so that He won't get into a bad mood and blast them with thunderbolts, or boils, or rivers of blood.

John: A little bit like the church congregation in "The Meaning of Life", who, when invited to praise God, all chant 'Ooooh, you are so big', and 'You're so tough and strong, you could beat anyone up, even the Devil', and 'We're really impressed don here' before singing Hymn 42 'Oh Lord, please don't burn us'. I can remember as a nione-year-old, thinking that God couldn't be so stupid that he wouldn't se through such blatant buttering up. p. 270 - 271

John: So the way I can explain our position now is to say this: there are different ways of following Christ - which correspond to different levels of mental health - and therefore it's quite legitimate to make fun of the less healthy ways, not least because they actually conflict with His teaching! The Inquisition was not an example of 'Blessed are the meek'. p. 275 - 276

Robin: ... I'll start at the bottom level again. As we said just now, for the least healthy, religion is based on the kind of thinking typical of very young children. And young children have difficulty distinguishing fantasy from reality, wishes from deeds. So at this level, religion is valued as magic - as a means of making wishes come true, without acknowledging scientific laws and relationships of cause and effect.

John: You mean at this level we believe that we only have to repeat a prayer of incantation, or perform some other prescribed routine, in order to make the world do what we want.

Robin: Yes, and when you're thinking like this, whether or not your wishes come true seems to depend only on how strongly you believe in the procedure! p. 277

Robin: ... to the extent that you face and accept your own psychology, including all your weaknesses and faults ... to THAT degree will you be able to accept and love others. And conversely: to the extent that you love others, to that degree you will be able to love yourself. p. 282

John: Well, everything that you've been saying implies that [Fundamentalism] is a manifestation of a fairly low level of mental health, doesn't it? For a start, Fundamentalists call for a literal interpretation of scripture, and as we saw when we were discussing secular values, focusing in on the letter of the law is a characteristic of the less healthy. In addition, wise people tend not to exhibit literal mindedness, so it seems singularly inappropriate to assume that this is the vein in which great spiritual teahers are speaking. Then again, whether we're talking about Christianity, Islam, Judaism or Hinduism, the values of Fundamentalists seem aimed at making themselves feel better by placing all negative and destructive emotions in people with different beliefs, and enjoying the golden glow of self-justification that results. ... You know that simile: 'As rare as a Fundamentalist who loves his enemy.' ... the Inquisition did largely miss the point of 'Love Thy Neighbour', didn't they? Wasn't burning heretics 'worse' than being tolerant towards them? ... p. 287

John: In other words, the aim is integration?

Robin: Yes. It's even there in the language. The words 'whole', 'healthy' and 'holy' all have the same root. They're all expressions of the same idea. p. 308

Paul Tournier "The Person Reborn"

From Paul Tournier "The Person Reborn" (SCM:1967)

"Life is short," wrote Hippocrates. "and the art long; the occasion fleeting; experience fallacious, and judgement difficult." p.93

... each of us deduces from his personal experience a system of thought, which he sets up as the truth against all other systems of thought. ... I have the liveliest sense of the immeasurable greatness of God, in comparison with which all our mumblings are of no significance. ... The orthodox violate the law of love which their orthodoxy enjoins upon them, in persecuting any who do not share their dogmas. p.98

The spirit of dogmatism ossifies thought and sterilizes life. The person who is satisfied with one experience loses the dissatisfaction which could be the source of fresh experiences. p.101

He who claims never to have doubted does not know what faith is, for faith is forged through doubt. ... To set up one system or doctrine against another impoverishes the mind by freezing it in a partisan attitude which obstructs the evolution of its life. How many upholders of orthodoxy seem to have fossilized minds, through having lost that unquenchable disquiet and curiosity which are the precondition of every advance in the spiritual life! As soon as one believes on possesses the truth, and encases it in a system, one shuts out other horizons. p.106

The spirit of dogmatism simplifies, opposes and systemizes. The philosophical spirit has a sense of the endless complexity of things. p. 107

THE FOUR W's OF CHURCH - WIN, WET, WORK, WASTE

"Sadly many churches practice the four W’s: win them, wet them, work them, waste them." - Bruce Gerencser

Once upon a time ..........

WIN THEM

You get sold a sales pitch full of lies and offers too good to be true.

"They told me a fairy story,
'Til I believed in the Israelite." - Greg Lake "I Believe In Father Christmas"

"Just believe" all your problems will be solved. Believe us. We know Jesus personally. (How? Through reading a man-made bible, that's how.)

"Jesus is the answer." (But he never answers your questions.)

You are suckered in without using your rational faculties.

You are brainwashed with repetitive Jesus Jingles and mantras. Free mass hypnotism for the people.

You are love bombed with smiley faces. "See, we really love you ... because you're a new convert."

WET THEM

In evangelical / pentecostal churches the next step is adult baptism to prove that you are really serious. Nothing really changes except that you are held under water for a few seconds. It does provide a badge of honour as you are not "sprinkled" like those heathen Christians down the road (Bloody Catholics, Anglicans and Liberals!). You are a "trew kristyun" who has been dunked. You are one of us. Welcome to the club ... now obey all the rules or we'll kick you out of heaven. Attend your weekly indoctrination classes. Don't ask questions.

WORK THEM

You get put in a "ministry". Everyone must have a ministry. Your "ministry" will be validated by the pastor who has the final say. Your ministry might begin by mowing the church lawns or cleaning the toilets. If you are a teacher ( like myself) you get a ministry of helping in children's church even though you have worked the last five days at a school and have preparation for those classes to do as well. If you are a musician (like myself) you get put in the "praise and worship ministry team" where you have to play Jesus Jingles for free though your fans pay money to see you elsewhere. You never get an explanation of the difference between praise and worship. Yours is not to question why. Yours is to do and .... Every Jesus Jingle is exactly like the previous and next ones. You never get paid for your ministry even if it is something that takes many hours. Any expertise you may have in any area is now available for free to any church member. You are doing it "for the Lord" though you are never told who the Lord is exactly.

WASTE THEM

You never get a break from this routine except over the Christmas holidays when the Lord is not so busy and there is no ministry available. Wait till February if you want ministry. You do the same thing every week for years. You get a mention in the church bulletin and a thank you from the pulpit. That's your pay. Nothing ever changes unless a better new convert comes along and then you are relegated to the sidelines. You are especially relegated to the sidelines and menial work if you are not a personal friend of the pastor. If you don't like the pastor then you are removed from "public ministry" where people can see you, perhaps back to cleaning toilets and mowing lawns. If a curvaceous young female comes into the church she is placed ahead of you as having a better ministry. One can only guess what that ministry is as she gets on so well with the pastor.

You read in your bible where slavery is advocated in both the Old and New Testaments and you begin to think that it is a viable option and a better "work for the Lord".

THE END

And they all live unhappily ever after if they remain in church.

Michael Ford "Wounded Prophet: A portrait of Henri Nowen"(Doubleday:1999)

I read Michael Ford "Wounded Prophet: A portrait of Henri Nowen"(Doubleday:1999). I found it very disappointing after all the hype I read about him.

Henri was profoundly psychologically disturbed. At the age of 8 his mother had got him a child-size altar and small vestments and had converted his attic into a chapel for him to play act being a priest. Talk about child abuse! His answers were trite and superficial basically boiling down to "Jesus is the answer". People thought that he had some special gift because he too was wounded. He doesn't seem to realise that people may be asking questions where Jesus is not the answer and something more substantial was needed.

He was a homosexual who didn't have the guts to come out of the closet for fear of losing money and readership and the disapproval of the Catholic church which paid him. It was a cowardly act. He died without letting the world know of his "secret sin" and helping many other homosexuals. I doubt whether I will bother reading anything else of his work unless it comes to me free.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - " Wind, Sand and Stars"

"And there I stayed a bit, ruminating and telling myself that a man was able to adapt himself to anything. The notion that he is to die in thirty years has probably never spoiled any man's fun. Thirty years ... or thirty days: It's all a matter of perspective." - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry - " Wind, Sand and Stars" p. 124

EDUCATORS & PERFORMANCE BASED PAY

The problem with "performance/incentive based pay" in education is that you are totally reliant upon the ability of students as the student outcomes are the only thing measurable. Teacher effort is unmeasurable. Which group of teachers will want to take the dumber kids who cannot achieve much regarding "performance" ? Every teacher will want to take the smarter kids who achieve "performance' far easier. Measuring a teacher upon student outcomes is plain silly. A teacher can only do so much with a student with multiple educational disabilities.

Why don't doctors have "performance/incentive based pay"? Exactly the same problem as with teachers. Which doctor will want to treat incurable diseases in patients if they are only paid when a patient is cured? Doctors would only be treating patients with diseases that they were absolutely sure they could cure.

Likewise, which politician would like "performance/incentive based pay" as voted by the community? If political decisions were only paid on value as perceived by the community, how many people would want to be politicians?

The business model does not work for a number of different professions. It's flaw is that it assumes a factory assembly line where all things can be measured equally. It is a wrong assumption but favoured by conservatives who value money over people in their economic rationalist worldview.

See

Merit Pay for Teachers: A Poor Prescription for Reform

Harvard Educational Review

http://her.hepg.org/content/36264448513xp4t5/

LIFE OF PI - Film and Book

From Yann Martel's "Life of Pi" - the book. Both film and book are well worth seeing. It is about story telling, God, humans, animals and varieties of truth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation. p. 44

... There is Brahman, the world soul, the sustaining frame upon which is woven, warp and weft, the cloth of being, with all its decorative elements of space and time. There is Brahman nirguna, without qualities, which lies beyond understanding, beyond description, beyond approach; with our poor words we sew a suit for it—One, Truth, Unity, Absolute, Ultimate Reality, Ground of Being—and try to make it fit, but Brahman nirguna always bursts the seams. We are left speechless. p. 67

Reading Group Guide:

God, survival and tiger behaviour. It’s hard to imagine a more invigorating combination of discussion topics. We hope that the following questions will enrich your reading of Pi’s fantastic journey. ....

3. In the Author’s Note, Mr. Adirubasamy boldly claims that this story “will make you believe in God”, and the author, after researching and writing the story, agrees. Did Pi’s tale alter your beliefs about God? ...

5. Early in the novel, we discover that Pi majored in religious studies and zoology, with particular interests in a sixteenth-century Kabbalist and the admirable three-toed sloth. In subsequent chapters, he explains the ways in which religions and zoos are both steeped in illusion. Discuss some of the other ways in which these two fields find unlikely compatibility

7. There is a lot of storytelling in this religious novel. Is there a relationship between religion and storytelling? Is religion a form of storytelling? Is there a theological dimension to storytelling

11. In chapter 23, Pi sparks a lively debate when all three of his spiritual advisors try to claim him. At the heart of this confrontation is Pi’s insistence that he cannot accept an exclusively Hindu, Christian or Muslim faith; he can only be content with all three. What is Pi seeking that can solely be attained by this apparent contradiction? Is there something common to all religions? Are they “all the same”? If not, how are they different? Is there a difference between faith and belief? ...

12. What do you make of Pi’s assertion at the beginning of chapter 16 that we are all “in limbo, without religion, until some figure introduces us to God”? Do you believe that Pi’s faith is a response to his father’s agnosticism? ... pp. 365 -367
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9Hjrs6WQ8M

SKEPTICISM (from D J Grothe - How To Be A "Perfect" Skeptic )

From D J Grothe - How To Be A "Perfect" Skeptic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sZZ6J0QkB4

1. Skepticism is really best when used as a weapon ( on other people) and not as a shield. ... You don't need skepticism to clean up your own thinking.

2. Foster the "Mensa effect". ... I'm a skeptic therefore I'm really smart and therefore I'm right. You're all skeptics therefore you should know that I'm right. ... The skeptics best and most valuable friend. ...

3. (Use a purity test.) You must constantly be vigilant and on guard against others not being pure skeptics or letting woowoo creep into their skepticism. Do not shy away from phrases such as “you are not a true skeptic". ... make sure that your fellow skeptic is pure and not polluted by any belief that does not follow necessarily out of your skepticism that you've adopted.

4. Our enemies ... enemies of reason.... To empathise with the unreasonable, to feel for the unreasonable, to try to figure out why they are there in that place, why they have that lot in life. lowers your defences and weakens your arguments. Empathy weakens your skepticism. ... Show little mercy when it comes to those spouting nonsense. This is especially important when dealing with claims that are central beliefs and very cherished and personally deeply felt. ... As we are skeptics we don't really have any good news to spread.... "Smile. Join our throng. Everything you believe is wrong - and you're an idiot." ...

5. Eschew marketing.... Skeptics should pay no attention to their audiences but only pay attention to the facts because the facts are all that matter. ... facts are a "one size fits all" solution because ... it's the truth at all cost no matter how painful. ... If you do it long enough and loud enough people will buy it. ...

6. Become a left libertarian, vegetarian, gay activist, ... stamp out homophobia ... adopt well-being consequentialism ... like Peter Singer ... Ethical and social issues. ... Skepticism is the way to arrive at the one true answer to any of these questions. ... Tell skeptics to stop focussing on trivial paranormal matters and instead deal with other more important matters like sexual and racial inequality, poverty, class, economics, all the social issues that merit our attention much more than whether a ghost exits ... or even God ...

7. The history of the last 30 years of the skeptics movement is irrelevant and you should really not let it become a distraction to you. ... You don't need to know why ... skeptics have tried to avoid politics ... social issues which they said skeptics might get distracted and divided over. ... There's no meaningful difference, no significant contrast, between skepticism, atheism and humanism. ... they are one and the same. ...

8. Skepticism leads necessarily to atheism. ... If you are not an atheist you can't be a proper skeptic. People like Michael Gardner and others in the history of skepticism who were deists or believed in Spinoza's God or believed in panentheism or pantheism ... they were an anomaly and should not matter at all for contemporary skepticism right now.

9. Our movement, our cause, already has all the spokespeople it needs. ... You fit best in skepticism when you are a consumer of our product rather than competing with us and advancing skepticism on your own. ... If you want to advance skepticism on your own you don't need any expertise or training to do so. ... You just need a deep commitment to the truth and you need ambition and that's all. No special training. It does not take any special expertise to advance skepticism just the commitment of telling other people that they are wrong. ...

10. You are a besieged minority. ... Racial and sexual minorities have had their day in the sun ... now it is our time as skeptics.

11. Skepticism is for us. It is not for everyone. ...

12. Do the exact opposite of every single thing I've said today.